


The Nital High School Case

by Kei_Eich_Elen



Series: BAP Freelance Investigation and Intervention Crew [1]
Category: B.A.P
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Minor Violence, Plot Twist, Team Dynamics, Undercover Missions, mystery story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 17:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3454889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kei_Eich_Elen/pseuds/Kei_Eich_Elen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A high schooler brings the BAP crew a seemingly normal case, but things take an unexpectedly tragic turn. Suddenly, the members are forced to make a decision about their future as a team. Some character study, some detectives-figuring-stuff-out, some tarot card reading, some city life, some knife fights.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Hanged Man (or how everything wasn't supposed to go wrong)

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to make this story a perfect balance of "detailed real book" and "fun/sappy fanfiction." Just for reference, I imagine the setting to be something like New York City (where I live). Also, many of the non-BAP characters are wacky versions of other people in the Kpop world. See if you can spot them^^!

In a simple three-card reading, the left card tells the past, the middle tells the present, and the right tells the future. Yongguk flipped the card on the far left.

Page of Pentacles.

He laughed out loud and shook his head. Yongguk had indeed began an interesting new business endeavor about 3 months ago, when he suddenly decided to join a ragtag group of talented strangers under his leadership and do high-paying, slightly illegal jobs for desperate clients. Almost in response, an eruption of cheers and loud videogame sounds echoed from the room upstairs. They were probably having another one of their Mario Cart parties. Yongguk concentrated on the reading and turned the middle card.

Four of Cups.

What?! The Four of Cups was associated with useless contemplation. It also meant that whatever he was looking for was right in front of him, but he just couldn’t see it. Yongguk frowned and flipped the final card.

The Hanged Man.

His frown deepened as he stared at the man in the card, dangling upside-down from a post. Hanged Man… That meant Yongguk would be sacrificing something.

 

Zelo fist-bumped his fellow swaggy, back-alley-dwelling, chain-wearing delinquent friend and turned towards the BAP building. The two-story brownstone shared a block with similar buildings that housed private businesses in the residential district. Zelo and his friend had received many suspicious looks on the way here, and he had to wonder why he even bothered to bring his “swaggy type” friends to the base sometimes.

“I’ll catch you later,” Zelo said.

The friend waved and left. As Zelo strolled up to the front steps, he noticed a girl in a school uniform wandering around aimlessly on the sidewalk. He called out,

“Hey you doin’ alright there?”

She spun around and made a flustered motion with her hands. Her hair flew in a giant mess and Zelo could see from her expression that she was in a panic.

“Yeah yeah yeah I’m fine,” She nodded. “I’m a bit lost but I think I can regain my bearings.”

He rolled his eyes.

“What’re you looking for?”

“Oh! Um… Have you heard of BAP?”

“Have I ever.”

“Excuse me?” She tilted her head in confusion.

“I have heard of them,” Zelo explained, rolling his eyes again.

“I don’t appreciate your attitude,” The girl, probably one or two years younger than him, said, crossing her arms. “How can someone insist on offering their help and then be so rude about it?”

“Ever heard of sarcasm?” He murmured, turning away.

Although he was dressed like a delinquent and all, Zelo didn’t actually like fights, or emotions for that matter. He walked up the steps to the BAP building and pressed the buzzer. A shrieking feedback noise came from the intercom and he flinched. Why did all intercoms do that?

 _Zelo is that you?_ It was Himchan, except a ruckus of partying sounds overshadowed his voice and Zelo couldn’t really hear him.

“What?”

He got a crackle of static in response. Zelo adjusted his cap and stood there waiting. Suddenly, he glanced behind him and his eyes met with the girl’s from before. She glared back at him. Then, she started to walk over.

 _Zelo?_ The intercom sputtered to life again.

“Yeah, yeah,” He said, pressing the button. “And I think we have a client.”

 

Youngjae and Daehyun watched as their leader and a school girl sat in the mess of their impromptu Mario Cart party. The girl was practically spilling her life story to the man, who couldn’t do much but nod and listen.

“Who is she?” Daehyun whispered.

“I dunno. Client?” Youngjae shrugged, not really sure himself.

“She looks fifteen,” Daehyun frowned. “She can’t pay us. What is she doing here? Did she hire Yongguk to listen to her life problems?”

“Who knows?”

Daehyun flipped the pocket knife in his hand thoughtfully. The last time he’d dealt with a high school girl had not been pretty, and he had the scars on his neck to remember it. In fact, he still had a sort of trauma for any females between the ages of fourteen and nineteen. Not that anyone from the team had ever found out. Why did they need to know? They’d never had to deal with teenagers anyway.

 

On the couch, Himchan joined Yongguk to listen to their client, Ceci, present her case (finally).

"I'm a junior at Nital High School," She said.

"Nital?" Himchan's eyes widened. "Isn't that where a kid died falling down the stairs last week?"

"Leo Hutchinson," She nodded. "I didn't know him that well, but it was still a shock to the whole school."

"Well, that is a shame," Yongguk said. "But I heard that the police are already involved."

"The thing is," She took a breath. "I have information no one else has. The police thinks- everyone actually- the public, the lawyers, the kids- they're all convinced Leo's fall was purely an accident. I mean, no one actually saw him fall, but there's no sign of anything suspicious and no one has any motive to kill Leo. They just found him at the bottom of the stairs."

"So what's this exclusive information you have?" Yongguk asked, folding his arms.

"A video."

"A video?"

"You have a video?" Himchan repeated.

"Let me explain myself. You see. I-" She cleared her throat. "I have a..." She straightened in her seat. "Er, there's this boy I like to keep my eye on. A-and I heard a rumor that he's been meeting with a senior girl in stairwell E during lunch. So I set up cameras-"

Their client broke off and fidgeted profusely while the two BAP members watched with patience and slight amusement.

“And?” Himchan prompted.

"Anyway.” She continued, reassured from the lack of reaction to her confession. “The time and place I set up my camera happened to be when and where Leo Hutchinson died. I realized this a few hours after his body was discovered, but I couldn’t get a chance to retrieve my camera until yesterday since they closed off the staircase. Well, actually I _never_ got a chance to retrieve my camera because I can’t find it!”

“Huh,” Himchan nodded.

Ceci nodded in return.

“I’d originally hidden it in a crack in the brickwork,” She said. “But when I looked yesterday I couldn’t find it anywhere. That was pretty fishy already. But then, I started getting these weird messages.”

“What messages?” Yongguk asked, suddenly showing interest.

“I’m about to show you.”

She pulled out a flip-phone from her pocket and showed them her text message history. The screen was filled with texts from different unknown phone numbers, all demanding her to hand over the video. Yongguk took the phone and scrolled through the messages. Meanwhile, Ceci continued.

“The messages are really weird. They’re not just scary, ‘cause yeah, they’re scary and obviously harassment, but they’re also plain _weird_.”

Yongguk could see what she meant. First of all, the same number never texted her twice- each message was from a different number. Whoever this texter was also seemed to change into another alter-ego each time they sent a message. Some messages were in all caps, some mysterious and cryptic, some dirty and explicit, some misspelled to the point that they were unreadable, and some littered in overbearingly cutesy emojis. For some reason though, Yongguk had the feeling that they were all written by the same person. And his intuition never failed him.

“They’re weird right?” Ceci said, pursing her lips.

Yongguk gave her a curt nod and handed the phone back. He turned to Himchan.

“Get the crew together.”

Himchan hopped off the couch to do just that, playfully saluting his leader and Ceci on the way out.

“We’ll take your case,” Yongguk told the high schooler, who clasped her hands together appreciatively and nodded. “But I need you to know something. There’s something off about this. I have a gut feeling there’s something off about this, so I want you to tell me _everything_. I want you to keep in contact with us as much as possible, and report anything suspicious or unusual ok? You’re gonna have to trust us and cooperate with us. Got me?”

Ceci listened and nodded vigorously.

 

In the dining room (which doubled as a meeting room), the crew of BAP was scattered around three sides of a table. On the last side was a white wall with a flat-screen tv installed in the middle, where all the members’ attentions were now directed. Yongguk pulled up the text messages on the screen.

“Woah,” Jongup said.

“Dang,” Zelo added.

“Yowza,” The older of the two continued.

“Wowzer-shizzle,” The younger finished.

Youngjae rolled his eyes and chuckled.

“There are a total of 542 of these anonymous messages,” Yongguk informed his crew, pointing at said messages. “That means a total of 542 anonymous phone numbers that texted Ceci Lang, knowing about a private video camera that she set up alone in a staircase, which may have happened to film the apparently accidental death of Leo Hutchinson, and that are threatening and blackmailing this high school girl for the footage. On top of that, the camera with the footage is lost and Ceci has no idea where it is or who might have it.”

“How do we know the police don’t have it?” Youngjae asked, resting his chin in his palm.

“You can get on that right now Youngjae,” The leader told his undercover agent.

“Yes!” Youngjae said, his face suddenly lighting up like an LED sign brought to life.

He stuck his tongue out at the other members before running to his room to gear up. Jongup and Himchan stuck their tongues out in retaliation while Daehyun gave him the barely less childish middle finger.

“Ok, ok guys,” Yongguk sighed. He felt like his role was more of a baby sitter at times than an operation leader. “While Youngjae concentrates on finding the missing camera I want the rest of you on these text messages.”

“Wait,” Zelo said, furrowing his eyebrows. “You mean we don’t get to go out?”

“Aw come on!” Jongup protested. “You can’t let Youngjae be the only one out doing fieldwork.”

“No you’re right,” Yongguk said. He glanced cautiously between Daehyun and Jongup, and when the two noticed they immediately straightened up. “Um… For this one…”

This moment of tension always happened at least once every case. It was expected really, with two members specializing in the same thing- beating people up- in one team.

“Daehyun-”

“Yes!” Daehyun grinned, throwing a fist in the air while Jongup sulked.

“I want you to be Ceci’s bodyguard. Many of the messages were on the verge of death threats so be extra alert. I already discussed this with Ceci and she’s fine with it. Nital is a boarding school, and I want you to register as a transfer student and pretend to be Ceci’s cousin.”

Yongguk handed the knife specialist a stack of papers.

“Look through that before you get there. I know undercover work isn’t your specialty but do your best to blend in with those high schoolers ok? And listen to Ceci. Try to stay on her good side and everything.”

“Alright, Captain.” Daehyun strolled off, leafing through the stack in his arms. He called over his shoulder, “You hear that? This is a _real_ bodyguard job for a _real_ martial artist.”

Jongup, a former WWE star, shook his head disbelievingly at the insult. Zelo and Himchan thought it was pretty funny and laughed. Yongguk tapped on the table to get the remaining members’ attentions.

“The rest of you I want on the text messages. Figure out where the numbers are coming from and if there’s any connection between them. Work with Youngjae once he can feed you information from the police. That’s all.”

As Zelo and Jongup dispersed to get their stuff together, Himchan tapped Yongguk on the shoulder.

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure,” The leader said, pulling out a chair for him. “What’s up?”

Himchan raked a hand through his jet-black hair and sat in it.

“You think this is fishy don’t you?” He said. Himchan tended to sense these little things from their unmovable leader, like krinkles of ripplets on his calm water surface.

“Yeah,” Yongguk admitted. “It’s mostly because of a reading I did earlier. It was a sketchy reading, and right when I finished it the doorbell rings and this case appears.”

“Hm,” Himchan nodded. “But you can use the reading for guidance right? Since you’re a… psychic and all.”

“I’m not a psychic,” Yongguk exasperated, for probably the thousandth time in his life. “I read tarot cards.”

“Whatever, same difference,” Himchan waved off. “I was thinking about our client, Ceci. Why did she come to us? I mean, wouldn’t a person normally go to the police for this? Or some other officials? And how is she going to pay us? She’s a high schooler.”

“We already settled the payment,” Yongguk said. “She can pay us, don’t worry. And why she came to us… Well she seemed genuinely desperate about wanting to keep this all a secret. It’s pretty embarrassing and illegal to set up cameras like that on your crush, especially in a boarding school where everyone knows each other.”

Himchan crossed his arms and nodded.

“Alright, alright,” He said. “I guess I can see that. Hold on, is that what she was talking to you for so long about at first?”

“Yeah. I mean, I can understand her social phobia feelings. She seems kind of rude on the outside but she’s actually really shy.”

Himchan nodded again. He could see that too.

 

“I got nothing,” Zelo declared, pushing his chair away from the desk. Boy he hated office work. It was so boring!

“That’s the last one right?” Jongup yawned, and then reached out with lightning speed to catch a mug that Zelo’s force had toppled over.

“Yep.”

“Himchan!” Jongup said, turning in his chair. “We did everything we could but we can’t find anything on the numbers!”

“Nothing?” The oldest of the three swiveled his chair around to face them. “You can’t have found _nothing_.”

Zelo cleared his throat and promptly brought up the files on his computer.

“With Youngjae’s help, we have the phone bill info for 542 random people from 12 different countries,” He reported. “All of the numbers are cancelled. They were canceled all at different times starting as far back as seven years ago, with the most recent one being canceled last week. They all had legitimate, normal people reasons for canceling the numbers. There’s nothing suspicious about them and there’s no connection between any of them.”

“Except English,” Jongup popped in. “They all speak English.”

“Yes.” Zelo pointed approvingly at his friend. “Good thinking. I forgot about that.”

“Huh,” Himchan said. It wasn’t the first time they’d been stuck so early in the case, but something told him they wouldn’t get very far the way they were operating now. Hopefully Youngjae or Daehyun could get something useful on their side.

 

The next day, Yongguk walked in during lunch break.

“We got news from Daehyun,” He announced. “The camera- Why is Zelo sleeping?”

“He got bored,” Jongup said as an explanation, while Himchan leaned over to pat the fluffy blond head resting on the former’s lap. The numbing hours of desk work, endless containers of Chinese take-out, and yellow rays of dusty sunlight through the window had easily lulled their youngest to sleep. Once Zelo had woken up enough to drag himself off the floor and into a chair, Yongguk continued.

“Someone from the school has the camera.”

“How does he know?” Himchan asked.

“Just a few minutes ago, someone called Ceci and asked for five hundred thousand dollars in return for the camera. Youngjae’s hooked up with Ceci’s phone right now, and he traced the signal back to a payphone in the school. Only students and faculty can access those phones with their IDs.”

“So?” Zelo said, rubbing his eyes.

“Leave the text messages up to me. I’m assigning each of you a suspect, based on the last IDs to access the payphones. You guys have some field work to do.”

The three members cheered.

“Himchan, your suspect is Gyusun Cordova. He’s part of the Acapella club, so you can find your way into that. Zelo, your suspect is VI Lee. He cuts class with a bunch of other Nital kids at your skateboarding place, so you should find him there. And Jongup, your suspect is Seth Attwater. He sneaks out to the arcade during class, so find him there. Let’s go over the plans before you leave.”

 

 


	2. The Three-Way Plan (or why Jongup is bad at undercover jobs)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens~

Himchan smiled pleasantly and shook the principal of Nital High’s hand.

“We’re so lucky to have you with us Mr. Kim,” Ms. Alam said, shaking his hand firmly. “I’m sure the Acapella club will be delighted to meet you.”

“Thank you,” Himchan said, smoothing out his oxford button-down. “But I don’t think I’m very popular among teenagers.”

“Oh, I’m sure Ms. Freez has showed the kids your yodeling videos already,” Ms. Alam assured him. “Don’t worry too much.”

Himchan thanked her and made his way to the auditorium. As he walked among a flow of meandering students through the museum-like corridors, the yodeler was reminded of Nital’s notoriously pricey tuition rate. Every student looked like the hotshot son or daughter of some billionaire parents. Unlike most expensive boarding schools though, Nital was located in the middle of a busy city and had a modern flair to it. It was like 21st century Hogwarts.

He eventually found himself standing with a group of teens on a stage. The glare of the spotlights was making him sweat.

“You can call me Mr. Kim,” Himchan said, introducing himself.  

Someone from the back row with fashionably gray hair raised his hand. Himchan squinted and realized with a silent groan that the hand belonged to Daehyun. Why didn’t anyone warn him about this?

“Mr. Kim,” Daehyun said. “Are you going to teach us how to yodel?”

“That’s the idea, yes,” Himchan nodded. He resisted the urge to glare at him and looked elsewhere. “Anymore questions? Yes?”

“What if I’m uncomfortable with learning how to yodel?” A girl asked, fiddling with her long, brown locks.

“Yeah, I don’t think my parents will be happy about this,” A boy with neat cornrows and diamond earrings agreed.

“Oh stop complaining!” A tiny guy scowled, pushing a pair of glasses up his tiny nose.

“It’s freakin’ yodeling it’s not going to kill you,” Another girl with heavy eyeliner droned, flipping her shiny black hair.

“Yodeling is hard,” Someone from the back pointed out.

“Word,” A boy with earbuds dangling around his neck nodded, real sophisticated. And then continued, “Not as hard as Gyusun after sex ed.”

Half the kids roared in laughter while the other half huffed in annoyance. Himchan sighed and made eye contact with Daehyun, who just shrugged and leaned back in his seat. Apparently, his gray-haired coworker wasn’t going to be of any help this time.

Zelo cackled at his swaggy-type friend’s crude joke and waltzed into the underground skate-park, surrounded by his swaggy-type crew. The cement space was covered entirely in endless layers of colorful graffiti and street art, so that the whole place looked dip-dyed in rainbow crayon. Skaters and other class-cutters littered the scene doing their own things in groups.

Usually, Zelo would get right down to practicing tricks with his crew, but today he was on a job.

“Gimme a minute, I’m on a case right now,” He told them, and headed over to some rich kids smoking on a bench.

As he approached, a girl with long, braided weave and golden contacts noticed him first.

“Hey, you need something?” She asked.

The group’s conversation stopped and they all turned to see what this boy wanted. It was weird for someone to just walk up on them in this place.

“Nah, nothing really. Just your opinion on something.”

“Here, have a seat,” A redhead with intense piercings said, gesturing at the bench next to him.

“Thanks.” Zelo sat in the seat and found himself surrounded by the smell of tobacco and crisp leather jackets. A cigarette was offered to him and he accepted it, letting a Korean guy across from him light it in his mouth. Zelo never liked smoking- regardless of what was being smoked- but he knew how to when socially required.

“What’s your name?” The redhead said.

“You can call me Zelo.”

“Alright. I’m Jragon, Zelo. And this is Ci Elle.” The girl with golden eyes poked her chin at him in acknowledgement and Zelo nodded back.

“So you wanted our opinion on something?” Jragon asked after a few puffs.

“Yeah,” The blond said. He adjusted his cap. “You guys know the kids at Nital?”

“Yeah,” The group nodded. It was a rhetorical question- they were all wearing Nital uniforms. “Why?”

“I’m trying to help a friend. She’s being asked for some money by someone in the school. Problem is, her family… got into a financial crisis recently and she just doesn’t have the kind of money she usually does. She can’t give them the money.”

“And?”

“So this isn’t helping either side.” Zelo repositioned his lanky legs. “I’m sure the other guy doesn’t know she’s broke. So I want to tell him. I got a feeling I know who the guy is, but I’m not completely sure. If you guys can relay the message for me and make sure he really is the guy, you’ll be doing me a big favor. If you guys want money I can get that too.”

Jragon shook his head.

“No, leave out the money. None of us need anymore goddamn money.”

Whoops, Zelo had forgotten about that. A curvy girl with short purple hair chuckled.

“I thought you just wanted our opinion on something,” She said.

“Well...” Zelo gave her a lopsided smile. “Your opinion on the favor, is what I meant.”

“I don’t see why not,” Jragon decided. “Give us the details.”

“The guy’s name is Jung Daehyun,” Zelo said, surprised at how easily they agreed. He fed his targets the final lines. “He transferred into the school yesterday. He’s Korean, and his hair is dyed gray. You can’t miss him. Tell him you got through a messenger that the best she can do is five grand.”

“Got that VI?” Jragon said.

“Jung Daehyun. Inside source. Five grand,” The Korean guy who lit him up said.

“Alright.” Jragon turned back to Zelo. “We’ll do you the favor. Get back to us tomorrow after 1 in the afternoon. We’ll be right here.”

“Cool,” Zelo nodded, dropping the cigarette butt and crushing it with the bottom of his sneaker. “Thanks again, I really appreciate it.”

As Zelo stood to leave, Jragon held up his hand.

“Hold on,” He said. “I just want one thing in return for your favor. It’s more of an obligation really, than something in return. I want proof that this girl and her ‘financial crisis’ really exists, and someone’s really asking her for money. Not to offend you or anything- just as a token of respect, since you’re asking us to get so involved for you. You can do that, right Zelo?”

“Yeah, yeah. ‘Course,” Zelo smiled. “Whatever you like.”

Zelo definitely did not expect this to happen when he planned out the dialogue, because no, he didn’t have any proof of this fake situation. He hoped Yongguk could find a way around this.

The rest of the class actually went pretty well. Himchan taught them the basic techniques of rising from your chest voice to your head voice, and hearing your voice crack in the transition. The students tried a lot of “little-old-lady-who” exercises and got a kick out of watching Himchan do it correctly over and over again.

“How does your voice do that?” A kid gawked for about the tenth time.

“Practice, like I said,” Himchan told them. Although honestly he’d been out of practice for at least three years now.

As the club meeting ended, Himchan pulled over a Latino boy with scroungy hair and thick-rimmed glasses. This was where his real job began. Daehyun hung out in the back, stalling so they could talk later.

“Hi, what’s your name again?” Himchan asked the boy.

“Gyusun?” The boy said, blinking his small eyes slowly.

“You’re pretty good Gyusun! Natural yodeler,” The teacher grinned, slapping his back.

“Really?” He looked genuinely confused. “No, not really.”

“No! Yes really!” Himchan laughed loudly in an attempt to seem friendly and welcoming. He needed Gyusun to open up to him. “I can see some real potential in you Gyusun, and I hope you see it too.”

Gyusun didn’t look too convinced, but he nodded anyway.

“But I know kids like you aren’t into yodeling,” Himchan said. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Daehyun “accidently” spill all the contents of his bag onto the floor. “What do you like to do Gyusun?”

Gyusun wasn’t enthusiastic at all to be interacting with the new yodeling teacher, and glanced at his watch. Himchan decided to switch it up.

“Ok, Gyusun listen to me for a minute alright? There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

That got the boy’s attention. Gyusun’s eyelids shot up and he blinked up alertly at him. Himchan ran a hand through his own hair and leaned against the stage, drawing the boy in with a more sincere demeanor.

“Do you know a girl named Ceci?” Himchan said solemnly, dropping his tone and lowering his eyes.

“Yeah,” Gyusun nodded.

“You see, I’m a friend of her father’s,” Himchan lied. “And just yesterday this tragedy happened to them. I’m not that great with economics, but I do know that one second the family was crazy rich, and now they’re embarrassingly poor. It’s- it’s very, very sad.”

Gyusun nodded, comprehending this.

“Gyusun, you seem like a good kid,” Himchan said. “You’re not like the other kids who like to stir up trouble with one another, so I want to trust you with this secret. Is that ok?”

“That’s fine, Mr. Kim,” Gyusun said. He furrowed his eyebrows. “I still don’t get why you’re telling _me_ , but I can keep a secret.”

“Good,” Himchan smiled goodnaturedly. “Thank you Gyusun. Ceci’s told me that she needs to make a payment for something big- five hundred thousand dollars. After what happened to the family’s money, she can only afford twenty thousand at best. I don’t know what this payment is for, but I do know that Ceci is really stressing out over it. Can you keep that secret for me? And keep an eye out for Ceci?”

“But I don’t know Ceci that well,” The boy shook his head. “I don’t know if there’s anything I can do for her.”

“I know Gyusun,” Himchan smiled sadly. “At least promise me that you’ll tell me if anything major happens to her ok? That’s all I’m asking.”

For the first time in their conversation, Gyusun’s expression lit up with confidence, and he nodded assertively. Himchan’s mission was complete. After the boy left, the auditorium was finally empty except for the two BAP members. Daehyun walked up to the professional yodeler and plopped down on the stage with a huge sigh.

“Someone’s tired,” Himchan commented, fixing the buttons on his shirt sleeve. “How’s life as a high school student?”

“Don’t even say those words to me,” Daehyun retorted, jabbing a finger at him. “When Yongguk said bodyguard I thought he meant, you know, fighting people. Not hearing some woman jabber about electrons for an hour and fucking taking notes!”

“Hold on, shouldn’t you be with Ceci right now?”

“Ok, ok I’m going,” The knife specialist mumbled, sitting up. “She has Geology club the same time I have Acapella.”

“What? Aren’t you supposed to be her bodyguard? Why aren’t you in Geology club with her?” Himchan asked.

“Why?” He rolled his eyes. That should be obvious. “Because Geology is the same time as Acapella. I can’t join Geology if it’s happening at the same time as Acapella.”

“You mean you _want_ to be in Acapella?” Himchan realized, shocked. “Daehyun since when have you liked singing?”

“Since right now!” He could feel his ears turning pink, goddammit. “Jeez, so many questions.”

“You know, if you told me earlier I could’ve given you lessons.”

“I want to sing, not yodel,” Daehyun told the older man, rolling his eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

An arcade sort of has the same feel as a club, Jongup thought as he wandered through the vast, dark floor, blinded by flashing lights and cheesy gaming noises from all directions. Gamers passed him left and right. Bright prize cranes and skee ball lanes and arcade machines glimmered enticingly. The smell of pizza and hotdogs wafted from the mini food-court. It was the kind of place he could lose himself in.

The (questionably) professional fighter adjusted his cap and exchanged ten dollars for a pocketful of tokens at the red booth. He’d been told by Yongguk that Seth Attwater was the type of person who only bothered to interact with people who deemed themselves worthy of his attention- basically, if you can beat him in a game. He set out to find this hardcore guy who’d probably watched too much anime in his lifetime.

“Excuse me,” He asked an employee carrying boxes of tickets. “Do you know where I can find Seth Attwater?”

“Seth Attwater? You mean the Sue Man?” He nodded towards the food court. “He’s over there at the table on the left, eating pizza.”

“Soo Man?” Jongup said. Yongguk hadn’t told him about this.

“Yeah. That dude has a reputation around here for being sued all the time,” The employee laughed. “He’s so good at games that people feel cheated out of their money when he beats them.”

“Oh _Sue_ Man!” Jongup laughed. He held the rim of his cap as he nodded. “Thank you!”

He began to walk up to the food court, getting distracted for a second by some skee ball players before arriving at the counter to place an order.

“One cheeseburger please.”

“We don’t have cheeseburgers,” The man at the register gave him a funny look. “How about a cheesedog?”

“Ok,” He decided.

When his cheesedog was ready, he took the tray and headed towards Sue Man’s table. Sue Man was a slightly chubby teen wearing a plain white t-shirt and black pants. A uniform jacket was wrapped around his waist, and a tie hung undone from his neck. He was almost done with the pizza when Jongup scooted in across from him.

“Hi, is it ok if I sit here?” He asked, smiling and taking his hat off. He was almost shocked when the boy didn’t respond, flat-out ignoring him as if he didn’t hear. Yongguk wasn’t exaggerating when he said ‘didn’t bother to interact.’

He blinked and took a bite of cheesedog. Woah, that was a really cheesy cheesedog.

As Jongup ate, Sue Man concentrated on his own meal, never acknowledging the other person or making eye contact. Within a few minutes, the last bites of pizza were gone and Sue Man stood to leave. He picked up his empty tray, when Jongup’s hand shot out and held it down.

“I want to play you at DDR,” He said. The boy still refused to look at him. “Will you talk to me if I beat you? ‘Cause I know I can beat you.”

Sue Man yanked at the tray but it didn’t budge. Jongup planted his fist down harder.

“Come on, don’t turn away from a good challenge. Don’t you want to know what it feels like to lose for once?”

Sue Man gave a small sigh- a reluctant acknowledgement of Jongup’s existence- and abandoned the tray altogether, walking away in the opposite direction. Jongup was left alone at the table. He pulled his hand away and took another bite of cheesedog. Maybe talking wasn’t going to be the best way to get through to Sue Man.

“You did _what_ Zelo?”

“Sorry,” Their youngest member mumbled, scratching his neck. “What else could I do?”

“Zelo’s right,” Youngjae said. “He didn’t really have a choice. There’s no other way he could get Jragon to trust him.”

“Thanks hyung.”

“It’s ok,” Himchan shrugged. “You can just fabricate some files, right Yongguk?”

“I guess you’re right,” The leader finally agreed. “Sorry I yelled at you Zelo.”

“It’s fine,” Zelo smiled gratefully.

Four members of BAP sat in the dining room while Daehyun Skyped from his dorm room through a computer screen, going over their successful missions.

“So…” Daehyun said through the computer. “Depending on what Ceci’s offer is changed to, we know which one of the suspects is the one blackmailing her?”

“Exactly,” Yongguk nodded. “Five thousand is VI, twenty thousand is Gyusun, and forty thousand is Seth. Granted that Jongup succeeds.”

“Um, speaking of which,” Youngjae said, raising his hand. “What’s happening with that?”

“Yeah, he should be getting back to us even if he failed,” Himchan said.

Yongguk checked the clock. It was almost seven in the evening. He’d given out the missions six hours ago.

“Want me to call him?” Youngjae offered, pulling his phone out.

“Yeah, do that.”

He couldn’t beat him.

Just like how he’d been abandoned at the food-court table, Jongup found himself abandoned at the Dance Dance Revolution machine, defeated. Jongup sighed. He'd have to tell the others he'd failed. He didn’t have anymore money to buy tokens.

Just then, Jongup looked up and was surprised when a crowd of people looked right back at him. Some of them even had phones in their hands and had been recording. A few of them clapped when he turned around, and the rest whistled or smiled.

"That's too bad man," One of them said. "You're really good."

"Thanks," Jongup said. It felt kind of nice, knowing that these people watched him dance and liked it. The feeling of the crowd and the spotlight and standing covered in sweat was reminiscent of his wrestling days. Suddenly a wave of nostalgia washed over him.

"I think you're the best who ever played Sue Man at DDR."

"Yeah, that was a hell of a game man."

"Thanks!"

“Why didn’t you try again?” It was the employee who’d helped him find Sue Man before. “You can probably beat him if you keep trying.”

“I can’t.” Jongup shook his head. “I don’t have anymore tokens.”

“You don’t? I can take care of that.”

With a refill of tokens and a mob of enthusiastic gamers, the rematch round was played. Jongup and Sue Man gripped the safety bars behind them and moved their feet like machine guns over the arrows. Thirty seconds into the song, everyone in the arcade had gathered.

They agreed on best out of five. Sue Man won the first song almost easily, and outdid Jongup by more than a million points on the second song. By some miracle, Jongup snagged the third song with a slim three hundred thousand point lead. People had nearly shrieked with excitement when the score came out.

As the machine randomly selected the fourth song, Jongup glanced over at Sue Man. The teen was breathing hard, and buckets of sweat poured down his clothes. If there was one thing Jongup could beat him at, it would be physical stamina. Halfway through the fourth song, Sue Man missed an entire chain of steps and had trouble regaining his footing. Suddenly pitying him, Jongup stopped and called for a do-over. The crowd booed and complained when the song was restarted.

“No.”

He whipped around to see Sue Man lean against the bar, wiping sweat from his brow.

“No do-over. You should’ve kept playing.”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m sorry. I should’ve kept playing.”

“S’okay.” Sue Man attempted a smile, and Jongup found himself flattered by the awkward grimace. “Dance better this time.”

“You too,” Jongup smiled, holding the rim of his snapback.

The fourth game was a tight match, with Jongup coming out four hundred points on top. In the fifth game, Sue Man’s loss of energy got the better of him and Jongup won by three million points. The crowd cheered and lifted him into the air.

“What’s your name?” A man yelled.

“Um.” Jongup teetered atop two strangers’ shoulders. He was suddenly distracted by the fact that he’d dropped his cap and couldn’t see it anywhere. It was his favorite cap. And very expensive. “Um… My cap-”

“What?!”

“Cap!”

“Cap! Cap! Cap! Cap!”

Thoroughly confused, Jongup searched the sea of bodies for Sue Man. He spotted him alone in the food-court, struggling to fill a cup with water.

“Um.”

“He’s not picking up,” Youngjae said.

Yongguk frowned. This was not ok. His team member should know better than to be so careless. He’d have to have a talk with Jongup when he came back.

“You know,” Youngjae said into the silence, putting his phone away. “Even if Jongup fails to pass the message to Attwater, we can still figure out which one of the suspects is blackmailing Ceci. Five thousand means VI, twenty thousand means Gyusun, and anything unexpected means Seth.”

“Hey,” Daehyun nodded. “That’s smart.”

“It’s not foolproof,” Yongguk said. “But you’re right, if that’s what we have for now. We just need Jongup to get back to us and make sure. Youngjae, go to the arcade and check up on him.”

Jongup flipped the beef with his tongs, pushing slices at the edge closer to the flame in the middle. Meanwhile Sue Man’s tongs moved the slices in the middle farther to the edge, creating a cooking rotation for the meat. A peaceful quiet filled their booth in the noisy restaurant.

“Is medium-rare ok?” Sue Man asked.

“Yeah. I actually like it better medium-rare.”

“Really? Me too.”

“It’s how I like my hamburgers,” Jongup explained, taking a sip of water. “Since I eat a lot of hamburgers, I guess I like all my meat medium-rare now.”

“That’s funny,” Sue Man smiled. His smile had gotten less awkward over time, and turned out to be more shy and toothy. A waiter appeared at the table and asked if everything was alright.

“Jongup,” Sue Man said. “You want a drink?”

“Um…” He was about to say no, but then something hit him with a jolt. Jongup was actually on a mission right now. He was supposed to get Sue Man’s trust and then trick him into thinking that Ceci couldn’t afford more than forty thousand dollars. Damn, he’d completely forgotten. “Sure. Just some beer, I have to get back home soon.”

He tried to ignore the way Sue Man’s face fell when he said that.

It was past seven thirty now, and Jongup was starting to get antsy. The team was going to wonder where he was.

“Uh, Sue- Seth.”

“Yeah?” The teen looked up from his plate of beef.

“I’m really sorry but I have to get going now,” He said, standing. “I have to meet up with some of my friends…”

“Oh,” Sue Man looked crestfallen. “That’s ok. Uh, will you, uh, come back to the arcade sometime?”

“Of course,” He smiled. “I’ll come again.”

Jongup dug his hand into a pocket and felt around for cash, only to come up empty. Oh, right. He’d spent it all on tokens.

“What’s wrong?” Sue Man asked.

“I uh, I don’t have money on me…”

“Oh it’s ok!” Sue Man said, taking out his wallet. “I have money. You can go meet your friends, they might be waiting for you.”

“But I have to pay you back-”

“No I’ll-”

“I have-”

“Really Jongup-”

“Is there anything else I can do for you instead? Like is there something I can pick up for you? Or an errand I can run?”

Sue Man’s expression blanked. He looked at Jongup and thought something over in his head for a while. Finally he said,

“Can you keep a secret for me?”

“A secret? Yeah, sure,” Jongup said. He sat down in the booth again.

Sue Man picked up a piece of napkin and started fiddling with it between his fingers. Suddenly, he couldn’t make eye contact with the boy across from him. Jongup chewed his bottom lip expectantly.

“Promise not to tell?”

“I promise. I swear I won’t tell anyone.”

“Ok.” Sue Man took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “Jongup… I did something really bad two days ago.”

Jongup blinked, his body suddenly filling with dread.

“Someone died in my school in the staircase, so the police came and closed it off for a while. That day the arcade was closed so I had nowhere else to go but school, and I didn’t know about the kid that died yet. I went to the staircase and there was some yellow tape but everything else was cleaned up so I thought it would be ok to use it.

"As I walked up I saw something black coming out from the wall so I looked closer and it was a camera hidden behind a brick. I was curious so I took the camera, and it was still filming. I tried to watch the video in it but I had to install the SD Card into a computer to watch it, so I brought it to the computer lab in the middle of the night. I-I-I watched th-the video in it and…”

Jongup waited.

“There was a lot of video in it so I almost missed it, but I fast-forwarded through some parts. At one part, a boy and a girl met each other in the staircase when it was empty and started making out. Then another girl came and got really mad when she saw them. She started to get in a fight with the first girl and the guy tried to break them up but he ended up getting in the fight too. After a moment, the guy fell down the stairs and hit his head on the floor. Blood went everywhere.

“The girls looked really freaked out and almost fought again but they ended up talking it out. They just left. For an hour, the video is just the boy bleeding dead on the floor. Then the hallways got busy again and someone opened the doors to the staircase and found the body. After that more people came and the police came and… yeah.”

Sue Man stopped talking and stared at the napkin in his hand. Jongup stayed silent. He wasn’t very good at serious conversations, but he swore to himself that he would be patient and listen to Sue Man tell his entire side of the story, and he would do it with respect.

“After I watched that…” Sue Man started again. “I brought the camera to my room. I knew the police didn’t have this video, because everyone was saying that the kid fell down the stairs by accident. I was thinking of turning it in to them, when I noticed there was a name on the strap. It was Ceci Lang, so I looked her up in the directory. And I was so surprised when I recognized her as the girl in the video.”

“What?” Jongup gasped. No, no there was no way. This didn’t add up...

“I’m sure of it!” Sue Man insisted. “It looked exactly like her. Ceci Lang was the second girl who came in and got mad at them for making out.”

Jongup still didn’t believe it. This wasn’t making any sense, but he reminded himself to just listen for now.

“Anyway, I figured out then that Ceci really needed this camera back. She’d killed somebody, and I held her fate in my hands. Everybody in that school has money, so I figured I could get a lot of money out of her with this. The thing is…”

He took a breath.

“Look, the thing is, my brother Alex has some lung problems because of smoking and he keeps on going to the emergency room. But my family doesn’t like him so they won’t help him pay his medical bills. When he was in high school he lied about his grades and taught me to cut class and do a bunch of other bad stuff. I mean, I don’t really like him either, but it’s wrong to not help him pay the medical bills. I mean, we’re so rich it really doesn’t matter right? And they don’t want him to _die_ right?”

Jongup nodded and Sue Man sighed. He’d never told anybody any of this before, and he was worried how this person he’d barely known for a day would react.

“I can’t get money from my family, so I thought the camera would be a good way to get a lot of money for Alex. I used the payphones in the school because I knew she wouldn’t be able to trace the number back to me, and I blackmailed her for the camera. I don’t know about medical bills, but I knew she would probably pay five hundred thousand dollars for it, so that’s what I demanded. That’s what I did this afternoon Jongup, a few hours before I played you at DDR. I blackmailed Ceci Lang for five hundred thousand dollars for the camera.”

Jongup’s mind now raced with this onslaught of new information. He didn’t want to upset Sue Man though, so he nodded understandingly and reached out to pat his arm. Instead of feeling awkward like he thought it would, the gesture felt genuine and sympathetic, and he was glad. Sue Man smiled meekly.

“Are you going to tell?” He asked.

“No,” Jongup shook his head. “I promised remember?”

Shit.

“Yeah, you did.” Tears somehow found their way to Sue Man’s eyes, and he quickly wiped them. “Thank you so much, no one’s ever been so nice to me before.”

“Yeah,” Jongup whispered, feeling like the worst person in the world. “I don’t really know about that.”

“No you really are.” Sue Man smiled. “You’re the best person in the world.”

Jongup laughed and Sue Man joined in, although not completely sure what was so funny. They exchanged a few more laughs afterwards, and then Jongup had to leave.

“Um,” He said, stepping away from the booth. He wanted to tell Sue Man something honest and special to make up for lying to him. “Don’t stress too much. I’m sure it’ll turn out alright. No matter what happens in the future, I’ll always remember how much fun we had today.”

Sue Man smiled from ear to ear and waved. Jongup waved back and made his way out of the restaurant.

Youngjae checked the sign on the arcade door. It was closing at ten- in two hours. Jongup should still be inside. He pushed through the doors and was greeted by the gamers’ colorfully lit fantasy-cave and an aroma of fried foods and cheese. The arcade was pretty busy right now, and Youngjae knew at a glance that he wouldn’t be finding the martial artist so easily. He pulled his phone out to call him again, and headed to the nearest corner of the space to start a systematic sweep.

_Hi this is Moon Jongup’s number. Since I’m probably not here right now, you can leave a message if you want after the beep. BEEEEEP._

“Jongup-ah where are you?!” Youngjae shouted into the phone as he passed a row of prize cranes. “I’m in the arcade looking for you, you dumbass, so call me back RIGHT NOW!”

He cut the call and continued his search. After he’d made a round of the entire arcade five times, he decided to ask someone.

“Excuse me,” He asked an employee. “Have you seen a guy, about twenty years old, with a snapback and purple hair? Maybe a few hours ago?”

“Oh you mean Cap?” He said, his face lighting up.

“Cap? No,” Youngjae shook his head. “He was wearing a cap but his name wasn’t Cap.”

“Really? That’s strange. There was a guy here a few hours ago, ‘bout twenty years old, purple hair and a snapback. If you ask anybody who was here they would remember.”

“What? Why?”

“He played this amazing round of DDR with the Sue Man and the whole place was watching. He beat Sue Man!”

“Wait what’s DDR?” Youngjae said. “And who’s Sue Man?”

The employee laughed.

“Dance Dance Revolution is a game, and Sue Man is a dude who’s really good at games.”

“Ohh,” Youngjae nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like who I’m looking for then. Is Sue Man Seth Attwater?”

“Yep.”

“Alright. So after Cap won, do you know where he went?”

“Yeah,” The employee jabbed his thumb towards the entrance. “I saw them leave together ‘bout three hours ago. Sue Man was gonna treat Cap to a meal.”

“They left for a meal together?” Youngjae said, shocked. What the hell was Jongup thinking? “Do you know where?”

“Sorry,” He shrugged. “There’re a few Korean places around here.”

“Ok,” Youngjae sighed. “Thanks.”

Youngjae checked his phone. He’d been looking for half an hour and it was eight thirty now. If Jongup had left with Attwater three hours ago and gone to a nearby restaurant, there was little chance they were still there. He could go to different restaurants and ask around, but there were so many around here and they wouldn’t remember all their customers. Unsure of what to do, Youngjae went back to the food court. He ordered a chocolate milkshake and sipped on it. He tried to put himself in Jongup’s shoes and retrace his steps.

Cold drink in hand, Youngjae found the DDR machine. He imagined it being surrounded by people while two guys battled it out on the arrow pads. Jongup won the game, and judging by the employee’s expression and Sue Man’s name, the crowd would be happy that Jongup won. He’d be bombarded with attention. Youngjae knew that when Jongup was bombarded with attention, he tended to direct his own attention elsewhere out of worry that something more important was being forgotten.

Youngjae stepped up onto the DDR machine and gazed out. He had a perfect view of the food court past several air hockey tables. Hmm… That didn’t give him much. It would’ve been empty in Jongup’s situation.

Something more important being forgotten… From Jongup’s point of view, in that moment, it would’ve been Attwater. Attwater was the one person anyone could feel bad for at that moment. Of course.

Once Jongup won, he would feel pity towards Attwater and Attwater would feel respect towards Jongup. One of them might’ve suggested eating out together, and they would leave… But Jongup couldn’t, because he wouldn’t have any money. If Jongup had really been playing for hours before he beat Attwater, he would be practically broke by the winning game. That meant Attwater would have to treat him. If Attwater was treating, he would want to take them to a fairly nice place. Attwater had low self-esteem and would let Jongup choose the place, despite knowing the restaurants around here pretty well. Jongup would know, and even though he was craving fast food, he would choose a standardly decent restaurant so Attwater would feel good about treating him there.

A lightbulb went off in Youngjae’s head. He knew which restaurant it was.

“Hey mister.”

Youngjae spun around and nearly knocked over a little girl in jeans and a Star Wars t-shirt.

“Oh, sorry didn’t see you there.”

“Mister,” She pouted. Youngjae noticed that her eyes were a prettily speckled jade color. “Can you take me to the bathroom? I can’t find my sister.”

“You can’t find your sister?” Youngjae said. “And you think she’s in the bathroom?”

The little girl nodded, her thin lips pressing into an affirmative line. Youngjae sighed and took her hand, swapping the milkshake to his other side. This better be quick.

“Ok, I’ll take you there.”

“Thanks mister.”

“You can call me Youngjae.”

“Jay? Like a bird!” She laughed as Youngjae led her towards the back. “Blue Jay! Can I call you Blue Jay?”

“Ok fine,” Youngjae chuckled. “What’s your name?”

“Sica,” She chirped. “But my full name is Jessica.”

“Sicka,” Youngjae grimaced. “That’s like sicko but a girl. I’m gonna call you Sicko from now on.”

“Hey!”

They reached the corridor with the bathrooms. The men’s and women’s doors stood side-by-side and a black door labeled Staff Only stood at the far end.

“I’ll wait for you outside ok?” Youngjae told her. “If she’s not there you can come back and I’ll help you look for her.”

“Ok!”

She ran down the hall and promptly burst through the Staff Only door.

“No! What’re you-” Youngjae groaned. He jogged over and opened the door to complete darkness. “Hello? Sica? Where did you go?”

“Help!” A scream came from inside the room. “Jay help me!”

“Hold on Sica! What’s wrong?!” He said, fumbling for his phone. He pulled up the Flashlight app and shone it into the room. “Sica?”

The beam fell into an endless, black corridor lined by two walls of repeated gray lockers. It was perpetually still, and Sica was nowhere to be seen.

“Sica?” His voice echoed faintly down the hall. “Are you in here? What’s-”

“Jay!” A shriek erupted from deep within the corridor. “Jay! Help!”

Youngjae sprinted down into the darkness, hearing the door slam shut somewhere behind him. His phone was the only source of light as lockers passed him left and right, never ending.

“Sica?”

The hall was eerily quiet. Youngjae pointed the light where the other end of the corridor should be. More lockers, no end. He’d run down the corridor pretty far now, hadn’t he? And where were the lights?

SMACK

A flower of pain blossomed at the back of Youngjae’s skull and he dropped, blacking out before his head made impact with the floor.


End file.
